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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 30, 2009

Dwight Howard

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Six

Magic - 103
Cavaliers - 90

Q. You said you wanted this team to win a championship. Everybody laughed. You went to Team USA and you kept talking about it and everybody kind of dismissed it. What do you think about it now?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, first of all, I'm happy that we came out tonight and did what we had to do at home, but it's over with. It's done.
I'm happy we won, but we got to move on to the next series, which is the Finals. So I'm happy about tonight. Go home and relax with my family and tomorrow wake up and get ready to go back to work.

Q. Before the playoffs, you told me that the Orlando Magic were going to win the championship. I know a lot of people thought "whatever." Here you are. You have beaten Boston. You have beaten Cleveland. Here you are at the promiseland in the Finals. What's going through your mind in terms of proving some people wrong here, Dwight?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I believe in my team, first of all. I believe that we come out every night and play our brand of basketball.
We can beat up. I have been telling you guys that all year. If we run, defend and, you know, rebound, we can win a lot of games. And everybody since I have been here, has always written us off.
We work every day. We put the work in the gym to become a better team. We're not -- we're not at our best yet. But, you know, I'm happy with our progress.

Q. Rashard talked about you sent out a text message to all the guys last night about dominate. That's kind of your word. Is that the mantra you had going into this game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Yes, sir. I sent out a text message when I woke up yesterday to the whole team, and I just told them that, you know, when they wake up today, think about dominating. When they come to shoot-around, think about dominate. When they get to the gym for the game, think about dominate.
And we started out the day great. We had a great shoot-around. Everybody was into it. Everybody was focused. And, you know, we came out tonight with the same mentality and we got a good win.

Q. Dwight, this is your first Eastern Conference Finals championship. Can you give us a description of what's going through your mind right now.
DWIGHT HOWARD: Very happy with our progress. We still got a lot of work to do. It feels good to win, but we want to win a championship. That's the ultimate goal. So tonight was a big stepping stone for us as a team from what we were able to accomplish last year.
But when we wake up tomorrow, we got to get ready to go back to work.

Q. If you can kind of look ahead a little bit to that Laker series, you will face another superstar in Kobe. How do you see that playing out and what do you guys have to do to finish it?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Like I have been telling you guys, if we run, defend and rebound, we can beat anybody. We are at our best when we are running and we are having fun. So, you know, that's the mentality that we have to take into the next series.

Q. At the beginning of the playoffs, there was a "Sports Illustrated" article written about you saying you were too goofy and maybe not serious enough to lead to a team to a championship. Also your team has been overlooked for the better half of a year and a half. Just talk about proving some of your doubters wrong and being four wins away of winning the championship without changing who you are.
DWIGHT HOWARD: I've always been known as somebody who has never been serious or always playing around. But I take the game of basketball very seriously. Every time I step on the floor, I may have a smile on my face, but my main job, my main goal is to go out there and fight for my team. And I can do that with a smile on my face. For us as a team, we understand how everybody has talked about us for the past couple of years.
But we understand that, you know, we get out on the floor, if we do what we do best, we can beat anybody. It's tough to not listen to the things that people have said about us. But that only fuels us. It pushes us to become a better team and to become, I would say, you know -- we became closer. With all the stuff that goes around us, what people say, we continue to get closer.
Me and Coach have gotten a lot closer. It only helps us get better.

Q. It was obviously a big blow when Jameer went down, one of your best friends on the team. Can you talk about Rafer Alston's kind of stepping up and embracing the role he had and making an impact with what you guys have been able to get to at this point.
DWIGHT HOWARD: Rafer came in right away knowing he is not Jameer Nelson and he didn't try to be Jameer. He came in doing what he do best. He pushed the pace, take the shots when he's open and just facilitate to the offense.
He has done a great job of that since he has been here. And he is also a great motivator. He keeps us going out there on the floor and off the floor. He's silly just like all of us. He fits in with our team very well. Just happy he's here.

Q. Can you talk about when you came to Orlando, this franchise was sort of a laughing stock -- they were coming off that awful season -- just how far this franchise has come and how much you think this means to the fans and to the city.
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think it's great. I can remember, you know, coming to the games and nobody is in the stands until we play, like, a Kobe or LeBron. And now the stands are always filled up.
I think we started to bring back some magic in Orlando, and that's one of the goals that I set out to do when I first got here. I felt that we were a laughing stock around the league. Everybody played the Magic, they thought about Disney World. So I just wanted to change that. We as a team wanted to change that.
Me and Jameer, we sat and we talked about this a lot, and we put on ourselves to get better every day in the gym, work on the little things to get better because we want not only the respect of the NBA but we want our fans in Orlando to believe in us.
We work extremely hard every day. We might have days where, just like anybody elsewhere, we mess up, we make mistakes. It is a bad day. But we wake up the next day with the mentality of getting better.

Q. There was a point late in that game about 40 seconds left when LeBron wrapped you up on a foul and afterwards he kind of gave you a low five. How did you feel about that moment and getting that from him?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Oh, I gave him five, you know. I knew he was trying to foul me. I knew he wasn't trying to hurt me or anything. So I was just letting him know that it is all love. I knew he was just trying to foul me. It wasn't no bad blood or nothing.

Q. I know you always say there is room for improvement, but how would you grade yourself and the team on their effort tonight for 48 minutes and also the focus?
DWIGHT HOWARD: My effort, I would say a B. And my teammates, an A plus. There was moments where we didn't play as hard as we need to. But for the most part, we came out with the mind-set of we run, really lock in on defense and try to rebound, we were going to have a great chance of winning the game.
But going into the Finals is going to be a lot tougher. We really have to work on going hard for 48 minutes. If we go hard for 48 minutes at the end of the Finals, we should have a ring. We should have a trophy.

Q. Talk about the job of Stan Van Gundy, from that first practice when he arrived, the things he said, to today. Has he delivered on the promise?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Yeah, he's always been the same guy. He wants nothing but the best out of all of us. He pushes us to the limits. Me and Stan have had our ups and downs, but for the most part, he's always, you know, always did a great job of motivating me and my teammates. He is a great motivator. Even when he is yelling and screaming, throughout all that, he finds a way to put in just an ounce of something to get us fired up.
He has been doing that since I've been here. He has been one of the best coaches I've ever said. Like I said, we had our ups and downs. I told him when he first got here, he was going to have a soldier in me and I was always going to go to battle for him. I appreciate everything he's done for us.

End of FastScripts

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